


Ophelia likes Hamlet.

by Theghostinthemirror



Category: Hamlet - Shakespeare
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-07
Updated: 2019-04-07
Packaged: 2020-01-06 11:53:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18387917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Theghostinthemirror/pseuds/Theghostinthemirror
Summary: Ophelia likes Hamlet.Polonius finds Hamlet confusing.Laertes is Hamlet’s friend.Hamlet loves Ophelia.They give each other flowers.Like lovers do.





	Ophelia likes Hamlet.

Ophelia likes Hamlet, she thinks. She likes his floppy hair, she likes his broad shoulders, she likes the way that he gestures when he’s passionate, she likes the way he speaks, half to himself, half to her.

( She likes the way he makes her feel like an adult.)

Ophelia does like Hamlet. Polonius utterly indifferent, ever more concerned with his position in the eyes of the King. Laertes likes Hamlet, but not as a match for her. Laertes says he is much too old.

( He is no child himself.)

Ophelia doesn’t mind. Hamlet is twenty-five, nine years her senior. Ophelia is sixteen, but very small for a girl of sixteen. Ophelia collects his letters, bundling them together, carefully placing a sprig of mint leaf between each letter. She ties them with twine and tucks them away. She always keeps them.

( Her secret.)

Ophelia likes her secret meetings. The ones where he pulls her aside and they kiss. He holds her tight, and tells her that he loves her. He likes to surprise her with those visits. Ophelia likes her secret meetings, she looks forward to them. He tells her about his schooling. He tells her about his friends. He tells her about how much he loves her. Everyday he brings her something. He brings her rosemary, he brings her pansies, he brings her columbines, he brings her fennel, and he brings her daisies most of all. She dries them and keeps them in a book. Ophelia waits eagerly each day for his surprises. Ophelia likes her secret meetings.

( Laertes is leaving.)

 

( He asks her not to see Hamlet anymore.)

Ophelia doesn’t listen. Ophelia does whatever she wants, she decides. She meets with Hamlet more and more. He meets with her more and more.

( He needs her more and more.)

Ophelia watches him. He grows increasingly agitated, increasingly distraught. Ophelia doesn’t know how to help him. If she can help him. He meets with her, and tells her he’s gonna marry her. He tells her about the visions he sees at night. He tells her about his dead father. He tells her about his new uncle-father. He tells her how much he needs her.

( She needs him less and less.)

( That’s what Polonius says.) 

Ophelia stops seeing Hamlet. When he sends her nice letters she gives them to her father. When he gives her pretty flowers she doesn’t dry them and stuff them away, she gives them to her father. He throws them in the fire and burns them up into ashes. Hamlet starts giving her violets and ivy, she ignores him still. He leaves french marigold on her doorstep. 

( He doesn’t stop visiting.)

( She doesn’t tell her father.)

Ophelia misses Hamlet. Ophelia worries about Hamlet. He grows madder and madder everyday, he trembles when he moves, he roars when he speaks. He speaks all to himself. Father says he is mad with love. 

(Ophelia agrees, but she thinks he’s mad for more than love.)

( Hamlet stops visiting.)

Ophelia gets visited. He meets her in his garden. He does not bring her any real flowers this time. He brings her flowers of his own kind, all up her neck.

( Ophelia doesn’t stop him.)

( He doesn’t stop.)

Ophelia stops meeting with him entirely.

( He doesn’t stop.)

Ophelia is visited again. This time, he asks her to give him flowers.

( She does.)

Ophelia gives Hamlet all her flowers. Hamlet gives Ophelia all of his flowers. All of them except one that Ophelia tells him she does not want. She didn’t want any of them, really, but she didn’t tell him. Hamlet gets madder. 

( He scares her.)

Ophelia is given a flower. She tells him no. He is mad, with delusion and anger, he is confused. He asks her why when she has always taken them before. She tells him no, but he pulls her away and gives her one anyway. She takes it. She doesn’t know why. She cries later.

(She tells her father.)

Ophelia’s father puts a stop to the visits. Ophelia’s father tries to use her as bait. Ophelia’s father says he’ll protect her. Ophelia thinks her father is a liar.

( Ophelia does as she’s told.) 

Ophelia meets Hamlet. He yells at her, he tells her that he lied. He tells her that he never really loved her at all. He tells her that nobody will be allowed to get married anymore. Not without his permission. He tells her to marry a fool. He tells her to go away. He tells her he loves her. He gives her his last flower.

( She pricks herself.)

( She bleeds.) 

( She doesn’t like Hamlet anymore.)

Ophelia has Hamlet’s head in her lap. His floppy hair is soft and he lets her play with it, he brushes his face against her belly.

( She thinks she might like him again.) 

Ophelia’s father dies. He is all covered in blood and velvet. Really she is not too sad. Her father never did as he said he would.

( Hamlet goes.)

( Before he goes he gives her ivy.)

( Laertes is coming.)

Ophelia has a stomachache. It burns inside of her, a sprout planted now growing, growing up, up, up. Wriggling up, twisting it’s way around her insides, until it blooms and rips her open. Rips her insides apart. Rips every part of her to shreds. 

( Laertes is home.)

Ophelia’s book falls off the shelf. Her flowers go everywhere. She gives them to everyone. She finds rue, and she gives it; keeping some for herself too.

( Ophelia needs more rue.)

Ophelia is wet. She has enough rue. Nobody watches. That’s fine. Ophelia is soaking wet. She doesn’t mind. Ophelia likes flowers, she thinks. Ophelia likes sprouts, she thinks.

 

Ophelia likes Hamlet.

 

She thinks.

**Author's Note:**

> I have not given up Promise me, I simply wanted to stretch my writing fingers doing something else for a bit.


End file.
